12 Years
by Echoing Dreams
Summary: When Fang trys to find Max 12 years after he last saw her, he realizes to late that everything has changed. - NOT FAX! DAX! - I do not own Maximum Ride.


Twelve years. It's been twelve years since I last saw Max. I didn't realise how easy it would be to find her after all this time. All I did was go online and did a days worth of research, and I had a location.

I flew out at once, leaving my lonely apartment in New York and flew to Arizona. The address I had brought me to a large house that was just outside of the town were Dr. Martinez lived. Tree's surrounded it and the only way in was through the trees or down a short road. That was, unless you had wings and could just fly over the trees. I took a moment to take in the land when I finally arrived.

The large yard was well kept, with a large wooden house in the center of it all. Two cars and a van were parked out front. Children's toys were piled on the front porch, and for a moment, I thought I had the wrong house.

But then the door opened as I hovered just above the trees, and out came a twenty seven year old Max. She was just as beautiful as I remembered her. She'd grown out her long brown hair, and had gained a sense of style that was obvious in her dark jeans and name brand t-shirt she was wearing. She was putting up her hair into a high ponytail as she watched a large white dog go out into the yard. She looked so different now that she was older, and it broke my heart to see her so mature and grown. I hadn't realised how different she would be, but then again, the last time I had spoken to her was eleven years ago when she called only to tell me that Angel was alive and with them once again.

"Hurry up Celeste." her voice broke me form my thoughts and I turned my attention back to her.

The dog woofed and went back to sniffing the yard.

I took a deep breathe, and very slowly I landed and stepped into the yard.

Max's beautiful brown eyes snapped towards me the second I landed, and she gasped in shock. "Fang." she whispered, stumbling back a step.

"Hey Max." I murmured.

She was shaking her head as the dog, now growling, went to stand protectively beside her. The noise seemed to snap her out of her shock, and the look of anger that spread across her face surprised me. "What are you doing here?" she snapped.

I hesitated. I had expected her to throw herself at me and cry and beat me and beg to know why I hadn't come for her earlier. I hadn't expected this. "I. . . I came to see you." I murmured.

Her eyes flashed dangerously. "You came to see me? Are you joking? I haven't even heard from you in twelve years Fang and you think you can just fly in and say hello?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Um, well yeah. I thought you'd want to see me." I murmured honestly.

She scoffed. "Are you kidding me Fang? Did you seriously think you could just come back like that? Did you expect me to welcome you?" she asked.

"Kind of." I replied, wincing away from her fierce glare like a little kid.

"Your insane! You made the choice to leave Fang! You left me and the flock and we didn't hear from you again! It was your choice to leave us. There is no way I will ever let you back into my life or my family's life." she hissed.

Slowly, I made my way to the porch as her words sunk in, and stood at the bottom of the two stairs as she glared down at me.

"I thought you loved me." I whispered, meeting her eyes with my own broken gaze.

She gave me a astonished look. "Are you serious?" she asked, and when I didn't reply she went on. "I used to love you. You used to be my entire life. But then you left us, and at first it did hurt. But then I realised something. You were never good for me. You only ever wanted me for yourself, but our flock needed me too. I got over you twelve years ago Fang. You have no clue how many things have changed." she growled at me.

My heart broke in that very moment. I couldn't just let her leave me thought, so I tried my last desperate attempt to at least keep her in my life.

"I'm sorry. I thought I could help you again. Help save the world." I tried desperately to explain what I wanted, but she just laughed.

"Save the world? Fang we're twenty seven years old! We stopped all that a long time ago. We gave up trying to save the world and quit the CMS. Since we left no one had bothered us, and all the bad guys gave up when they had no one to fight anymore. Things have changed." she informed me sharply.

I gasped. "But . . . But, your Maximum Ride! You can't give up saving the world! It's what you do!" I insisted.

"I am not Maximum Ride anymore. For a while I was Max Martinez, but now my name is Max Aves." she informed me.

"Why would you change your name?" I asked, completely dumbfounded.

She lifted her left hand so that the front of it was facing me. A silver ring sparkled on her ring finger. "I grew up. I married the man of my dreams. My one true love. I got a job, and now I am a respected business women." she told me.

The pain that overtook my heart was to much to handle. She was someone else's now. She wasn't my Max. A single tear escaped my eye. I couldn't say anything as we just starred at each other for a moment that lasted barely ten seconds.

The front door of the house opened, and two young teenagers stepped out. My heart broke even more. A twenty one year old Gazzy, now insanely tall and very handsome with long his long blonde hair and bright blue eyes followed his sister from the house. Angel was a beautiful 19 year old girl, with her long blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a grown up, mature air about her that I never thought I would ever see on Angel. "Mom? What's taking so long?" Angel asked Max before she noticed me standing there. She gasped and stumbled towards Max, who caught the younger girl into a hug as she kept her glare locked on me. "Oh no, oh gosh no." Gazzy's broken whisper matched his horrified eyes as he stumbled into Max's hug with Angel. Both kids were crying as Max hugged them close.

"You see this Fang? We're a perfectly happy family and now you've showed up and look at what you've done! We've lived without this kind of drama for a long time, and now you've gone and messed everything up." Max snarled as Gazzy and Angel, both still crying, pulled away from her.

"Angel. Gaz." I whispered.

Angel's silent tears turned to full out sobs as she crouched down and cried, "Dad!"

"No, why Fang, why?" Gazzy whispered as he crouched down beside his sister to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Running footsteps were heard from inside the house and the front door flew open once more. The first thing Fang noticed was a two year old little girl with long brown hair and bright blue eyes as she stumbled outside and latched onto Max's leg, looking at the sobbing Angel with a worried expression before looking up at Max. "Mommy? Why is Ange crying so bad?" she asked in a scared little voice.

Max bent to scoop her up before kissing her forehead. "She's really upset, baby." she whispered to the girl.

"What is going on here?" The question came from a man who had followed the little girl outside. His hair was long and dark blonde, and his bright blue eyes, so much like the little girls were sharp as he gazed around the two women, young man and the little girl before his gaze rested on Fang.

"You." he hissed as Angel stood to burry her face in his chest. Dylan put his hand on the back of her head as he glared at Fang.

"Now you've gone and ruined everything. Thanks a lot Fang." Max growled as the little girl began to cry quietly.

"Mommy? Dad?" was all I was able to say.

Max was obviously furious as she glared at me. "After I married Dylan eight years ago we officially adopted Gazzy and Angel." she replied in a voice that told me she didn't want to tell me anything personal about her family.

She had not only married someone else, she'd married Dylan, the reason I had left her in the first place.

"The girl?" I asked, knowing the answer, but knowing that I had to at least hear her say it.

Max hesitated so Dylan reached out with his other hand to place it on her shoulder. "Our daughter. And you will have nothing to do with her." he growled.

Their daughter. They had a daughter.

As I gazed up at the little family those words slowly sank in. Gazzy and Angel who had once been as much my children as they had been Max's were grown and had a father that wasn't me, like it should have been. Max had a husband, who should have been me. And the little girl with Max's hair should have been my child. But all of them, they were Dylan's now, and it was obvious from their expressions that they all loved him now. Dylan had replaced Fang in their lives, and they all liked it that way.

Things would never be the same as they had all those years ago. So I did the only thing my body would let me.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, and without a backwards glance, I spun around and took off into the air. Back to my lonely apartment were I had nothing. All the hopes I had come with, everything I had hoped to gain by finding Max was gone. I was alone, and that was that.


End file.
